Four years of big crops in the U.S. and the world have brought some economic pain for farmers in the form of prices that, in many cases, are below the cost of production. Low prices are serving to stimulate demand, though, and they will ultimately be self-curing.With USDA’s pending 12 September release of the monthly WASDE, futures trading this week will no doubt be dominated by expectations of its fresh yield and production estimates for U.S. corn and soybeans. The discussions over the size of this year’s presumably record crops will continue until at least November. By that time, it is assumed that harvests will be far enough along to make the market comfortable with its yield and production assumptions. The September WASDE is a just a st...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Forecasting developments in production agriculture
On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.